XL INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 



party's luncheon) about 1840" and the following shows 

 the sport they had : 



"Skeap — Ske-ap!" up sprang a couple of snipe 

 before Shot's nose and Harry cut them down, a 

 splendid double shot before they had flown twenty 

 yards just as Frank dropped the one that rose to 

 him at the same moment. At the sound of the 

 guns a dozen more rose hard by, and fluttering 

 on in rapid zigzags dropped once again within a 

 hundred yards — the meadow was alive with 

 them." 



From the same chapter the reader learns that the four 

 guns scored forty-nine English snipe, fifteen for Harry 

 Archer, thirteen for Tom Draw — ^twelve for the Commodore 

 — and only nine for Forester "who never killed snipe quite 

 as well as he did cock or quail", and about the luncheon 

 one reads: 



"And now boys, exclaimed Tom, as he fluufx 

 his huge carcass on the ground with a thud that 

 shook it many a rod around — there's a cold 

 roast fowl and some nice salt pork and crackers 

 in that 'er game bag — and I am a whale now I 

 lell you for a drink." 



That morning, in 1843, before running into the snipe 

 they had picked up a woodcock or two, and I remembered 

 with pleasure a few sentences descriptive of the woodcock 

 which Harry, Frank, and Tom had found at Squires 

 Swamphole, which not a little while later our host pointed 

 out to us far in the distance: 



•'Suddenly after hunting through a mass of 

 thorns and wild vine which made our trip almost 

 impassable I came upon a little grassy spot, 

 quite clear of trees and covered with the tender- 

 est verdure through which a narrow rill stole 

 silently and as I set my foot on it up jumped 

 with his beautifully colored variegated back all 

 reddened by the sunbeams a fine and full-fed 

 woodcock with a peeidiar twitter which he utters 

 when surprised. He had not got ten yards how- 

 ever before my gun was at my shoulder and the 

 trigger drawn and before I beard the crack I 



